# Helium Helium is the extremely noble gas of the Thury spine — chemically inert, superfluid at low temperature, the terminus of stellar hydrogen fusion, and the one element on the periodic table that human beings can lose forever. Its refusal to combine defines the reactivity boundary the Compendium maps; that same refusal, plus a mass of four, is why every gram we vent is on a two-million-year one-way trip out of the atmosphere. ## Microsims — three.js <iframe src="https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/Helium.html" width="100%" height="620" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin" title="Helium — three.js microsim"></iframe> **`Helium` (three.js).** Three stages are stacked vertically in one scene so that the causality is geometry: a basement cutaway where gold [[Uranium|uranium]] and [[Thorium|thorium]] grains fire one [[Alpha_decay|alpha decay]] at a time and each [[Alpha_particle|alpha particle]], where its track stops, turns teal because it is now an atom of [[Helium-4|helium-4]]; a [[Porous_medium|porous]] reservoir under a caprock seal where the trapped fraction climbs toward the 0.3 per cent commercial cutoff; and an exobase shell whose atoms carry true Maxwell–Boltzmann speeds, so that the ones exceeding 10.77 km/s leave for good. Drag *Seal integrity* from 1.0 down to 0.2 and watch a trap stop being a trap — that slider is the entire reason there is an industry — then drag *Exobase temperature* from 700 K to 2000 K and watch the thermal escape rate move by twelve orders of magnitude. The live HUD quantity is a pair of independently computed escaping fractions printed side by side: an importance-sampled [[Monte_Carlo_method|Monte Carlo]] estimate measured from the drawn population, and the analytic Jeans tail; they agree to four significant figures across the whole 700–2000 K range, and that agreement is what licenses the cumulative loss counter. Press *Vent the reserve* to dump the accumulated trap into the air in one frame; the escaped-atom counter is monotonic and is cleared neither by venting nor by the reset button, because the irreversibility is the entire point. <!-- LEGACYSIM:BEGIN v1.5 — generated by g03_mint_wave.py; three.js first; do not hand-edit inside --> ## Microsims (promoted from legacy — three.js first) ### 🧊 Helium · 3D (three.js) <iframe src="https://wikitube-elements.netlify.app/?el=He&embed=1" width="100%" height="620" frameborder="0" style="border:0;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden" allowfullscreen loading="lazy" title="The Elements 3D microsim - Helium"></iframe> *Helium in the live three.js Elements explorer — drag to orbit the atom, click any tile to compare, slide the temperature.* · [▶ open full](https://wikitube-elements.netlify.app/?el=He) <!-- ELEMENTS_MICROSIM:END --> The **Helium Industries Discovery Card Set** prepares Minnesota's state colleges and education [[System|system]] for the Helium Boom centered in Babbitt, MN. Helium's unique properties — ultra-low boiling point (4.2K), inert nature, low density, rapid diffusion, high thermal conductivity — make it essential across 8 industries: **Health, Advanced [[Manufacturing]], Transportation/Aerospace, [[Engineering]], Information Technology, Agriculture, [[Energy]], and Helium/He-3 Research**. The Helium room organizes 149+ verified Wikipedia articles as **p5.js-microsimmable concepts** — visual, interactive phenomena that can be simulated as discovery cards in the GENERATIVE framework. Each item links to its (future) Obsidian page; the corresponding microsim is saved to the same slug in the p5.js Web Editor. As microsims ship, check the row. ← Back to MAIN --- ### Microsim To Do — 149 priority articles These are the 149 articles selected for their **simulatability, relevance to helium applications, and cross-industry impact**, grouped by core p5.js visualization patterns adapted for helium [[Physics|physics]]. Articles are sourced from the Helium Industries Discovery Cards spreadsheet (`Helium_Industries_Discovery_Cards_GENERATIVE.xlsx`). *Slug note:* where Wikipedia uses URL-encoded characters, the Obsidian page uses the human-readable form. The spreadsheet retains URL-encoded slugs for outbound web links. ### Pattern A — Phase diagrams, state transitions, and cryogenic properties (8) Temperature-pressure phase diagrams; transitions between liquid/solid/gas states; critical phenomena. The starter sketch visualizes helium's unique phase diagram below 4.2K. - [x] [[Cryogenics]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/1unm-XNLx* - [x] [[Superfluid_helium-4]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/wxBSln5z5* - [x] [[Helium_cryogenics]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/pP5sZ5sSv* - [x] Cryogenic temperature *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/RY54EEtNK* - [x] [[Liquid_helium]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/DvmbV7Vp1* - [x] [[Phase_transition]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/I72z0hVuk* - [x] [[Thermodynamic_equilibrium]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/dPYboO9TR* - [x] Critical temperature *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/NcS3TCa0c* ### Pattern C — Arc profiles, gas mixtures, and welding dynamics (6) Temperature profiles along gas jet centerline; arc characteristics; shielding gas effects. Applies to GTAW (gas tungsten arc welding) and GMAW visualizations. - [x] [[Gas_tungsten_arc_welding]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/t7_nlT5EX* - [x] [[Shielding_gas]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/9GBXPCDIZ* - [x] Gas metal arc welding *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/aMVzrw98H* - [x] Orbital welding *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/-RPJ9v8Ct* - [x] [[Heat_transfer]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/QRea-7JU3* - [x] Thermal conductivity *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/sgOeCVDqC* ### Pattern D — Parametric curves, efficiency, and performance analysis (15) Log-log axes; sensitivity curves; recovery efficiency vs. separation stages; cost-benefit tradeoffs. Applies to gas separation, reactor performance, quantum systems. - [x] Cryogenic distillation *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/4mM7-YeJN* - [x] [[Fractional_distillation]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Q235FAdkq* - [x] Energy conversion efficiency *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/J9BJxB_eK* - [x] [[Nuclear_fusion]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/LStzi8CFw* - [x] [[Helium-3]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/TrE2NWUfG* - [x] [[Binding_energy]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/qRQ8UgF6G* - [x] Cross section (physics) *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/VTf_nr8B6* - [x] [[Superconductivity]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/3xQZFjhRZ* - [x] High-temperature superconductivity *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/dhkEkGLeW* - [x] [[Quantum_computing]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/REj7QBkj4* - [x] [[Gas_chromatography]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/odxYh9Vpn* - [x] Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/TtPc5fVUw* - [x] Porosity *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/7aWeEDBpN* - [x] Mass spectrometry *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/qI2au16XU* - [x] Isotope separation *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/_nHE4c_19* ### Pattern E — Particle systems, animations, and kinetic phenomena (12) Particle motion; thermal animations; diffusion and transport. Applies to diving gas behavior, leak detection, isotope production. - [x] Cosmic rays *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/ZsXY9HU4U* - [x] [[Radioactive_decay]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/ndeZ3IkXH* - [x] [[Nucleosynthesis]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Tpchmb17V* - [x] [[Nitrogen_narcosis]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/3OQ1crZ1T* - [x] Physiology of decompression *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/tyoNWxUhO* - [x] [[Breathing_gas]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/7FFr9gtTG* - [x] [[Trimix_(breathing_gas)]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/4VEY1wJew* - [x] Gas blending for scuba diving *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/kVjJ-9j7T* - [x] Soil science *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/sK34BSMXj* - [x] Helium ionization detector *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/gCM5jpGd_* - [x] [[Leak]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/waAt3Q5uV* - [x] [[Fluid_dynamics]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/sevFmMxGw* ### Pattern G — Block diagrams, system flows, and process chains (18) System schematics; process flow diagrams; multi-stage cascades. Applies to helium production, separation systems, cooling loops. - [x] [[Helium_production_in_the_United_States]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/ECYubMBFg* - [x] [[Natural_gas]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/7eQM3QcvQ* - [x] [[Helium_storage_and_conservation]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/fJsCCqMrI* - [x] [[National_Helium_Reserve]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/eP33YAPM0* - [x] [[Magnetic_resonance_imaging]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/NXAxGfamM* - [x] [[Superconducting_magnet]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Xu7mG4Yo_* - [x] Technological applications of superconductivity *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/d5sw6U7G9* - [x] [[Semiconductor_device_fabrication]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/kPAyXdn0U* - [x] Non-destructive testing *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/s6w2U_WGx* - [x] Pressure vessel *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/9eLhb5wJB* - [x] [[Helium_mass_spectrometer]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/eMuAnP-Ua* - [x] Liquid helium handling *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/3ubjHPUjc* - [x] Cryogenic storage *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/tem8e15LN* - [x] [[Boiling_point]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/VziF3HN-Lb* - [x] Aerospace engineering *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/pgr6xBz-m* - [x] [[Rocket_propellant]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/DsIanlgNT* - [x] Spacecraft propulsion *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/8pAzDQkq8* - [x] [[Dilution_refrigerator]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/ZOYPv_pYk* ### Pattern K — Stock-and-flow, conservation, and balance equations (12) Energy balance; conservation of mass; inventory tracking; resource depletion/accumulation. - [x] Helium *✅ <paste editor URL after save>* - [x] Conservation of energy *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/d8Sx3cL4U* - [x] Energy transformation *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Uf3g0uO_e* - [x] Thermodynamic cycle *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/oIEDfNF1F* - [x] Carnot heat engine *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/i1V1BuYkk* - [x] Geothermal power *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Ekvb1-3fe* - [x] [[Hydrogen_production]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/igQKlUTcC* - [x] Energy storage *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/YajxWnnCV* - [x] System dynamics *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/VG2lh_GDS* - [x] First law of thermodynamics *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/V-0JUIuyE* - [x] [[Second_law_of_thermodynamics]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/pxNtyC2xF* - [x] [[Entropy]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/A-Lx_2q2s* ### Crossover with Geometry — Topological and spatial visualization (8) Geometric patterns; spatial relationships; 3D [[Structure|structure]] visualization. - [x] Babbitt, Minnesota *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Gw5hsP14I* - [x] Buoyancy *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/7E95dhM9M* - [x] [[Lifting_gas]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/vYxugfF1s* - [x] [[Balloon]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/JJ37eYM7T* - [x] [[Fusion_rocket]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/810vYsbef* - [x] Molecular weight *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/SfR0ns1p7* - [x] [[Atomic_mass]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/ifeHSMgMn* - [x] [[Density]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/voyPu863e* ### Physics & Detection Concepts (45+) Fundamental properties; quantum phenomena; measurement techniques; applications. - [x] [[Quantum_mechanics]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/A_73AMciC* - [x] Quantum tunneling *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/rflLCxYoG* - [x] Quantum statistics *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/wGNOj1xsb* - [x] [[Boson]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/7nuN8HWjc* - [x] [[Fermion]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/r1ohjBwxL* - [x] [[Zero-point_energy]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/npXlwW_az* - [x] [[Spin_(physics)]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/yAQ3WhXLM* - [x] [[Nuclear_magnetic_resonance]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/N56o6yfcQ* - [x] Electron paramagnetic resonance *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/BRnMNEOy-* - [x] SQUID *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/qMy2N5cIq* - [x] Magnetoencephalography *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/9FWur6yyb* - [x] [[Inert_gas]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/DlHdNWEGS* - [x] [[Noble_gas]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/3zZMw0yrq* - [x] [[Helium-4]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/lX1Qzrp-f* - [x] [[Alpha_particle]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/hrAAf829T* - [x] [[Beta_decay]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/6EKFi6NAU* - [x] Gamma ray *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/LGds1SLJn* - [x] [[Half-life]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/esnTAjQ1K* - [x] [[Decay_chain]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/dRi1gJpsi* - [x] Positron emission tomography *✅ validated — `Microsims/Positron_emission_tomography.js` · <paste editor URL after save>* - [x] Magnetic field *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/xj3NsWmgo* - [x] Electromagnetic radiation *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/q1HRSO_wq* - [x] [[Ionization_energy]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/sTaq4v2KA* - [x] [[Schrödinger_equation]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/zMq3oG9Pf* - [x] Wave function *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/vDskHHpTt* - [x] Hamiltonian (quantum mechanics) *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/e6DD6c5eU* - [x] Quantum entanglement *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/PQOu2rNpA* - [x] Decoherence *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/BcnNIoDCt* - [x] Qubit *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/APMzl9Gp9* - [x] Quantum gate *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/owd65x0GQ* - [x] Quantum circuit *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/wW-bc3q6c* - [x] Quantum error correction *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/f8g0Ldzjn* - [x] Quantum algorithm *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/QSycbXxrt* - [x] [[Photon]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/b0gIqrpjh* - [x] [[Electron]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Tik1Rbh9Q* - [x] [[Neutron]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/x1rQI-8lu* - [x] [[Proton]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/09Qloq3Kk* - [x] Nuclear force *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/pFikG_UKj* - [x] Strong interaction *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/z5bFxh6c-* - [x] Weak interaction *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/wtr67ueU8* - [x] [[Coulomb's_law]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/4LA9cgSrE* - [x] Electric field *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/XUzBUIQVr* - [x] Lorentz force *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/qmwZB5vyw* - [x] [[Plasma_(physics)]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Tb2hfHDgn* - [x] [[Diffusion]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/ZoDIpgATd* - [x] [[Viscosity]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/LGnSl67W_* ### Medical, Materials, and Production Technologies (35+) Applications in healthcare, industrial processes, and manufacturing. - [x] Cryosurgery *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Rk-gpEbHD* - [x] Hypothermia treatment *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/KcU8u2kha* - [x] Medical imaging *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/vLVkmaBBu* - [x] Positron emission tomography *✅ validated — `Microsims/Positron_emission_tomography.js` · <paste editor URL after save>* - [x] NMR spectroscopy *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Hxp6qsk-x* - [x] Molecular imaging *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/kG9r45fEm* - [x] X-ray crystallography *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/KA7O7seUW* - [x] Cryo-electron microscopy *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/CeyNaBDJ1* - [x] Spectroscopy *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/uB9-1t1Vv* - [x] X-ray fluorescence *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/om8JKOzOn* - [x] Neutron activation analysis *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/zxnEXCjlo* - [x] Scanning electron microscope *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/vfJ3oAONo* - [x] Atomic force microscope *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/u2AMJoFkX* - [x] [[Leak_detection]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/TDyTvSrmV* - [x] Purity testing *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/kHHAgFFy0* - [x] Quality assurance *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/mBipXOIiu* - [x] Material testing *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/YlqvKbv2C* - [x] Tensile strength *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/gIrd9D0MV* - [x] Brittleness *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/rmJ1kmU5p* - [x] [[Fatigue_(material)]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/19WPH9qZj* - [x] Thermal stress *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/Wm7-Dxeul* - [x] Fracture mechanics *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/YcQoz_cJ4* - [x] Creep (deformation) *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/H65I-0yt1* - [x] [[Corrosion]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/lzAm1zjcY* - [x] Stress corrosion cracking *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/mbRitKKxB* - [x] Crystal defect *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/dJsZXnvA-* - [x] Dislocation *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/v4nw9fmJO* - [x] Grain boundary *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/06gE0ItD_* - [x] [[Alloy]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/XyffhwPcd* - [x] [[Steel]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/3OFg-Su8M* - [x] [[Titanium]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/1IZoNsxqT* - [x] [[Copper]] *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/s52TLBiXG* - [x] Aluminum *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/VXw6xK2il* - [x] Stainless steel *✅ https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/42V1rEEuh* --- **Total:** 149 articles · Pattern A: 8 · Pattern C: 6 · Pattern D: 15 · Pattern E: 12 · Pattern G: 18 · Pattern K: 12 · [[Geometry]] crossover: 8 · Physics & Detection: 45+ · Medical/Materials/Production: 35+ **Cross-industry overlap:** The 149 articles in this queue span all 8 industries (Health, Manufacturing, Transportation, Engineering, IT, Agriculture, Energy, Helium_Research) and leverage shared visualization patterns from the Energy, Engineering, and Nuclear rooms. Key shared modules: `gauge.js`, `stock_flow.js`, `state_diagram.js`, and `vector_field.js` from Energy room; `block_diagram.js` and `scope.js` from Engineering room; `chain_reaction.js` and `nuclide_chart.js` from Nuclear room. ← Back to MAIN <!-- REAL-GENERATIVE-MEDIA:START --> <!-- LEGACYSIM:END --> <!-- MICROSIMGEN:BEGIN v1.7 — generated by g08_place_microsims.py; three.js first (§15); do not hand-edit inside --> ## Microsims — p5.js ### Helium (p5.js) <div class="microsim-player"> <iframe src="https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/full/BaoszwzUL" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin" title="Helium — p5.js microsim"></iframe> </div> *The room hero: helium the noble gas — its closed electron shell, its place at atomic number two, and the physics its inertness makes possible.* **Open in the editor:** [&#9654; fork this sketch](https://editor.p5js.org/sciencenibber/sketches/BaoszwzUL) · library `p5js` ### Related microsims Live sims on neighbouring articles — 2 of them inside this article's own Wikipedia link tree: - [[Helium-3]] *(in tree)* - [[Helium-4]] *(in tree)* *Sim hosted off-article; the article owns the reference, not the runtime (WIKI_RULES §10.4). Placed by `g08_place_microsims.py`.* <!-- g09-shelf-note --> > **Also on this page:** 156 further p5.js sketches already published for this article live further down. Per WIKI_RULES §5 a collision promotes rather than forks — they are one shelf, not rivals; this block is the §10.4 *current best* reference. <!-- MICROSIMGEN:END --> <!-- GIFPLATE:BEGIN v1.0 g16 — Commons hotlink; do not hand-edit inside --> ## Images <figure class="wt-gifplate"> <img src="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/D_orbitals_of_an_atom.gif" alt="Noble Gas Structure" loading="lazy" decoding="async"> <figcaption><strong>Noble Gas Structure</strong> — Show helium atomic structure and noble gas stability.<br> <span class="wt-credit">Wikimedia Commons &middot; <strong>licence pending verification</strong> (run <code>g17_gif_verify.py</code> on a networked lane) &middot; <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D_orbitals_of_an_atom.gif">Details</a></span></figcaption> </figure> *The hub concept of [[PORTAL_Helium]]. Still companion to the 2 live microsims above — §15 keeps the player first, the plate sits in the image slot.* <!-- GIFPLATE:END --> ## Reveal %%REVEAL:three%% --- *Concept aligned with [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium); adapted text, where present, is licensed [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).* ## Overview The governing fact, from which the rest descends: **helium is the only element we can permanently lose.** Vent [[Argon|argon]], [[Nitrogen|nitrogen]], [[Xenon|xenon]], [[Krypton|krypton]] or [[Radon|radon]] and every atom stays on [[Earth|Earth]] — diluted, unprofitable, still here. Vent helium and it leaves the planet within a few million years. Three properties conspire, and they are the three that make it useful. Helium is the second [[Chemical_element|chemical element]]: two [[Proton|protons]], normally two [[Neutron|neutrons]], two [[Electron|electrons]] filling the 1s [[Atomic_orbital|atomic orbital]]. That closed shell makes it the least reactive substance known — the first [[Noble_gas|noble gas]], the archetypal [[Inert_gas|inert gas]], forming no bulk compounds — so nothing fixes it the way water fixes [[Hydrogen|hydrogen]]; its [[Chemistry|chemistry]] is a blank page. It is monatomic, not [[Diatomic_molecule|diatomic]], so it brings no rotational modes to a collision. And it is light, 4.0026 in [[Atomic_mass|atomic mass]] units: light enough that the fast tail of the [[Kinetic_theory_of_gases|Maxwell–Boltzmann]] speed [[Probability_density_function|distribution]] reaches escape [[Velocity|velocity]]. Two superlatives follow from the same weak binding, and both carry conditions. Helium has the lowest [[Boiling_point|boiling point]] of any element — helium-4 at 4.2221 K and 101 325 Pa (NIST TN 1334), [[Helium-3|helium-3]] at about 3.19 K — where [[Hydrogen|hydrogen]] boils at 20.3 K and [[Neon|neon]] at 27.1 K, five and six times higher. And helium alone will not solidify under its own vapour pressure at *any* temperature: cool it to absolute zero at one atmosphere and no amount of [[Thermodynamics|thermodynamics]] will freeze it, because it stays [[Liquid_helium|liquid]]; about 25 atmospheres (2.5 MPa) near 1 K is required to freeze it. The cause is [[Zero-point_energy|zero-point energy]] — the atom is so light, and the van der Waals well between two closed shells so shallow, that the [[Quantum_mechanics|quantum-mechanical]] ground-state kinetic energy of an atom localised on a lattice site exceeds the [[Binding_energy|binding]] that would hold it. The liquid that survives is where [[Superfluidity|superfluidity]] lives: helium-4 is a [[Boson|boson]] and condenses at the [[Lambda_point|lambda point]] into [[Superfluid_helium-4|superfluid helium-4]], with zero [[Viscosity|viscosity]], [[Second_sound|second sound]] and the [[Rollin_film|Rollin film]]; helium-3 is a [[Fermion|fermion]] and must pair before it can, which is why [[Helium_cryogenics|helium cryogenics]] has two different [[Phase_transition|phase transitions]] to explain. ## The abundance gap: a quarter of the universe, five parts per million of the air Cosmically helium is not scarce: about 24 per cent of the mass of ordinary baryonic matter. Primordial [[Nucleosynthesis|nucleosynthesis]] fixes the mass fraction at Y_p = 0.245 ± 0.003 (PDG 2025); stellar hydrogen burning has added since, and the [[Triple-alpha_process|triple-alpha process]] burns some back to [[Carbon|carbon]]. It was found in the [[Sun|Sun]] before it was found here. Earth's air is 5.24 parts per million by volume (Birner, Morgan & Keeling 2023: "Assuming an atmospheric He content of 5.24 ppm"). Two corrections. First, that value is usually credited to Glückauf & Paneth 1946; the 2023 measurement paper actually cites Glückauf's 1944 note in *Transactions of the Faraday Society*, and Wikipedia rounds it to 5.2 ppm. Second, and worse, the cosmic ratio is routinely got by dividing a *mass* fraction by a *volume* fraction. Helium's molar mass is 4.0026 against air's 28.9647, so 5.24 ppmv is **0.724 ppm by mass** and the honest ratio is 0.24 / 7.24 × 10⁻⁷ ≈ **3.3 × 10⁵**. Earth's air is three hundred thousand times poorer in helium, by mass, than the universe; using the volume figure understates the gap 7.2-fold. The gap has one cause: Earth never kept its nebular share. What is aloft now is a small, leaking, continuously replenished [[Stock_and_flow|stock]] — and it is rising, at 39 ± 3 billion moles of helium-4 per year across 1974–2020, co-released with carbon dioxide by fossil fuel exploitation (Birner et al. 2022). ## Where terrestrial helium comes from: alpha decay, at a geological rate An [[Alpha_particle|alpha particle]] *is* a helium-4 nucleus, and that identity is the whole geochemistry. [[Radioactive_decay|Radioactive decay]] of [[Uranium|uranium]] and [[Thorium|thorium]] in the [[Crust_(geology)|crust]] makes the element atom by atom: the U-238 [[Decay_chain|decay chain]] to [[Lead|lead]]-206 emits eight alphas, U-235 to Pb-207 seven, Th-232 to Pb-208 six. Each picks up two electrons and becomes [[Helium-4|helium-4]]. Every atom in a [[Natural_gas|gas field]] is a [[Decay_product|decay product]] with [[Radium|radium]] and [[Polonium|polonium]] in its ancestry, and [[Alpha_decay|alpha decay]] is the only [[Manufacturing|manufacturing]] process available. The in-situ production rate, in the form quoted across the noble-gas literature after Ballentine & Burnard (2002): > ⁴He = 1.207 × 10⁻¹³ [U] + 2.867 × 10⁻¹⁴ [Th] cm³ STP g⁻¹ yr⁻¹ with [U] and [Th] in ppm. Those conditions are not decoration: per gram of rock, per year, cubic centimetres at STP, coefficients per part per million. The three.js sim above does not hard-code that line — it re-derives both coefficients from [[Half-life|half-lives]], isotopic abundances and alpha yields, landing on 1.2073 × 10⁻¹³ and 2.859 × 10⁻¹⁴: the published uranium term to four figures, the thorium term to 0.3 per cent, the residual being the Th-232 half-life adopted (1.40 against 1.405 × 10¹⁰ yr). In atoms: 3.24 × 10⁶ per gram per year per ppm U, 7.68 × 10⁵ per ppm Th. ([[Spontaneous_fission|Spontaneous fission]] of U-238 makes no helium at all; it is what makes the fission [[Xenon|xenon]] and [[Krypton|krypton]] found in the same rocks.) Feed in Rudnick & Gao's upper continental crust — U = 2.7 ± 0.6 ppm, Th = 10.5 ± 1.0 ppm — and you get 1.68 × 10⁷ atoms per gram per year. That sounds enormous and is nothing: a cubic metre of granite makes about **0.3 grams of helium in a billion years**. Helium is made at a geological rate and at no other, which is why it is a [[Nuclear_fuel|fuel-cycle]] by-product nobody can scale up. ## Why it only becomes a resource under a seal Manufacture is not the constraint; capture is. A 4–9 MeV alpha stops within roughly 10 to 30 µm of its birthplace (Farley, Wolf & Silver 1996) — inside the [[Silicon_dioxide|silicate]] grain. It must leave that grain, migrate through a [[Porous_medium|porous medium]] by [[Diffusion|diffusion]], [[Percolation|percolation]] and advection, and be caught under something impermeable. The trapping [[Geometry|geometry]] is the one that holds [[Natural_gas|natural gas]] — which is why helium exploration is a branch of [[Petroleum_engineering|petroleum]] geology — but a seal that leaks methane leaks helium faster, helium being the smallest and most mobile atom there is. No trap, no reserve: without a seal the helium reaches the surface and joins the air at 0.000524 per cent, worthless. The standard cutoff is the National Research Council's: "Generally, natural gas containing more than 0.3 percent helium is considered economic for helium extraction in the United States" (NRC 2000) — about **570 times** the atmospheric concentration. That 0.3 per cent is a US convention, not a law of nature, and the literature disputes it. Danabalan et al. (2022), the standard modern review, work with an economic threshold of 0.1 per cent; where a plant exists already for other reasons — a nitrogen-rejection unit, an LNG train doing [[Cryogenics|cryogenic]] [[Fractional_distillation|fractional distillation]] — leaner gas pays. Name the range, 0.1 to 0.3 per cent, rather than averaging a dispute into a fake consensus. For scale: the Dexter, Kansas well whose "wind gas" would not burn, analysed by Cady and McFarland on 7 December 1905, assayed 1.84 per cent — the result that made an industry. Some San Juan County, New Mexico gas exceeds 7 per cent. [[Helium_production_in_the_United_States|US production]] ran for decades off the Hugoton–Panhandle complex at tenths of a per cent to a few per cent; the fields that filled Cliffside ran 0.3 to 2.7 per cent. ## Why it is lost: Jeans escape, and why Jeans is not the whole story At the exobase — 500 to 600 km up, far above the [[Stratosphere|stratosphere]] and the [[Ozone_layer|ozone layer]], where the mean free path exceeds the scale height and an atom's next event is a ballistic trajectory rather than a collision — speeds are Maxwell–Boltzmann. The Jeans condition is simply: faster than escape [[Velocity|velocity]], pointing outward. With v_esc = √(2GM/r), the [[Gravitational_field|gravitational]] threshold is **10.77 km/s** at 500 km, against 11.19 km/s at the ground. Everything then rides on one dimensionless number, the escape parameter L = m v_esc² / (2kT) = (v_esc/v_p)² — gravitational binding over thermal [[Energy|energy]]. The Maxwellian fraction above escape speed is erfc(√L) + (2/√π)√L e^(−L); the flux fraction those atoms carry is the cleaner (1 + L) e^(−L). Both are exactly what the sim's importance-sampled [[Monte_Carlo_method|Monte Carlo]] estimator reproduces, to four significant figures, across 700–2000 K. At an exobase temperature of 1000 K, L is 7.03 for atomic hydrogen, 27.9 for helium-4, 195 for N₂. Exponentiate and the periodic table sorts itself: the tail fraction is 2.8 × 10⁻³ for hydrogen, 4.5 × 10⁻¹² for helium, 2 × 10⁻⁸⁴ for [[Nitrogen|nitrogen]]. Nitrogen's tail does not reach escape velocity in the age of the universe and never will. Helium's does, barely — and barely suffices, because there are 5.6 × 10³⁸ helium atoms up there. The same parameter explains why [[Jupiter|Jupiter]] keeps hydrogen and [[Mars|Mars]] and [[Venus|Venus]] did not keep water. Carry the inventory explicitly: 5.148 × 10¹⁸ kg of air (Trenberth & Smith 2005), over 28.9647 g/mol, times 5.24 ppmv, is 9.31 × 10¹⁴ mol — **3.73 × 10⁹ tonnes** aloft. Against an observed loss near 50 g/s (Catling & Zahnle 2009) that is a **residence time of 2.4 million years**: a geological blink. Exobase temperature is not a free parameter in nature, either: it tracks solar activity through extreme-ultraviolet [[Photon|photons]] from the [[Sun|Sun]], and a hotter thermosphere also lifts more helium to the exobase, so the real sensitivity is steeper than any fixed-density model shows. **Jeans escape is not the mechanism, though.** This is the correction most popular accounts miss. Catling and Zahnle state that "only about one in a million helium atoms is lost from Earth via Jeans' escape"; the polar wind — helium [[Ion|ionised]] in the upper atmosphere and accelerated up open field lines over the poles, a [[Plasma_(physics)|plasma]] process — does almost all of the rest. Jeans is the channel you can compute exactly from first principles, and the one that fixes the sorting rule for which species can leave at all. It is not the budget. Presenting the Jeans formula as the explanation of the 50 g/s is an error of six orders of magnitude. Compare hydrogen: lighter (L = 7, not 28) and leaving at about 3 kg/s, yet Earth has almost no free hydrogen — because hydrogen is chemically bound into water and rock and never reaches the exobase in quantity. Helium is the only element simultaneously light enough to go and inert enough never to be held. That is the thesis in one sentence. ## What it is used for, and why substitution is hard USGS *Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026* gives the US end-use split as analytical, [[Engineering|engineering]], lab, science and specialty gases 22 per cent; controlled atmospheres, fibre optics and [[Semiconductor_device_fabrication|semiconductors]] 17; [[Lifting_gas|lifting gas]] 17; [[Magnetic_resonance_imaging|magnetic resonance imaging]] 15; [[Aerospace_engineering|aerospace]] 9; [[Gas_tungsten_arc_welding|welding]] 8; [[Breathing_gas|diving]] 5; [[Leak_detection|leak detection]] 5; other 2. Correct a piece of folklore: MRI is very often quoted at "about 30 per cent" of helium use. USGS puts it at **15 per cent in the 2026 summary and 17 per cent in 2025**; earlier summaries ranked MRI first by quantity but published no percentages. Print 15–17 per cent of US consumption — the *ranking* is the durable claim, not the share. Substitution is hard because in most of these helium is not a preference but the only substance with the property. - [[Superconducting_magnet|Superconducting magnets]] for MRI and [[Nuclear_magnetic_resonance|nuclear magnetic resonance]] run NbTi [[Alloy|alloy]] at 4.2 K, and nothing else is a liquid there. Sealed low-inventory magnets and cryocoolers are genuinely cutting the charge per instrument — that is where substitution is actually happening — but they still need a helium working fluid, as does every [[Dilution_refrigerator|dilution refrigerator]] and most laboratory [[Superconductivity|superconductivity]]. - [[Leak|Leak]] testing with a [[Helium_mass_spectrometer|helium mass spectrometer]] uses the smallest atom that is inert and nearly absent from the background at 5.24 ppmv. That low background *is* the method, so the rising atmospheric helium of Birner et al. is a slow instrumentation problem as well as a budget signal. - Purge and pressurisation of [[Rocket_propellant|rocket propellant]] tanks: helium is still a gas against liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, where nitrogen is a solid. - [[Gas_tungsten_arc_welding|Gas tungsten arc welding]] uses it as a [[Shielding_gas|shielding gas]]; its high [[Ionization_energy|ionisation energy]] gives a hotter, deeper-penetrating arc than argon and better [[Heat_transfer|heat transfer]] into the weld. - [[Breathing_gas|Breathing gas]]: [[Trimix_(breathing_gas)|trimix]] and heliox displace nitrogen to eliminate [[Nitrogen_narcosis|nitrogen narcosis]] and cut breathing resistance at depth. - [[Semiconductor_device_fabrication|Semiconductor fabrication]] uses it as an inert, high-thermal-conductivity carrier and heat-transfer gas, as does [[Gas_chromatography|gas chromatography]]. - Helium-3 has no substitute at all in [[Neutron_detection|neutron detection]] and in [[Hyperpolarization_(physics)|hyperpolarised]] [[Spin_(physics)|nuclear-spin]] lung imaging. - [[Lifting_gas|Lifting gas]] in a [[Balloon|balloon]] is the one large use where a substitute exists — hydrogen — and is refused on safety grounds. ## The supply story: Cliffside, the sell-off, and the disposal of the reserve The [[National_Helium_Reserve|National Helium Reserve]] was crude helium injected into the Bush Dome reservoir of the Cliffside field near Amarillo, Texas, against an [[Interwar_period|interwar]] airship demand and then a [[Cold_War|Cold War]] [[United_States_Air_Force|Air Force]] and space-programme demand for purge gas that never arrived at the assumed scale. By the 1990s it held an enormous stock and an enormous debt. The **Helium Privatization Act of 1996** (Public Law 104-273, 9 October 1996) directed that the Secretary "shall commence offering for sale crude helium" no later than 1 January 2005 and "dispose of all such helium reserves in excess of 600,000,000 cubic feet on a straight-line basis" by 1 January 2015. It did not set a market price: the statutory minimum came from "dividing the outstanding amount of such repayable amounts by the volume (in million cubic feet) of crude helium owned by the United States", a debt-amortisation formula. For over a decade the world's largest single seller therefore priced by arithmetic rather than by scarcity, draining a non-renewable [[Helium_storage_and_conservation|store]] into a market whose price signal it was itself suppressing — the substance of the charge that the Act was a fiasco. The **Helium Stewardship Act of 2013** (Public Law 113-40, 2 October 2013) replaced the formula with phased auctions, gave federal agencies and federal grant holders priority access, funded resource assessment and [[Helium-3|helium-3]] separation research, and required disposal of all remaining US property, equipment and interests in the reserve by September 2021. They were not disposed of on time. The Federal Helium [[System|System]] assets were sold on 25 January 2024 in two lots, both to one company, and transferred on 27 June 2024 (USGS *MCS 2025*); the BLM names the buyer as Messer and reports $460 million to the Treasury. The federal helium era ended about two and a half years past its statutory deadline, roughly a century after it began. **On the current market the sources genuinely disagree, and the disagreement is fresh.** USGS *MCS 2026*, reporting calendar 2025, describes expansion: six new US operations (three in New Mexico, one each in Colorado, Kansas, Montana), a new storage cavern at Beaumont, Texas "able to store excess helium production", new plants in Canada and South Africa, EU and US sanctions on Russian helium continuing. That is a surplus picture. Within weeks it inverted. Iranian strikes on Ras Laffan halted QatarEnergy LNG and associated production from 2 March 2026, with a second strike on 18 March; spot prices roughly doubled; and on 14 April 2026 Russia put helium exports outside the Eurasian Economic Union under ministerial licence through end-2027. Qatar's share of world supply is itself disputed — one supply-chain analysis says "approximately one-third", a regional trade report puts the at-risk share at 11 per cent. Both cannot be right. The defensible statement: Qatar is the largest non-US source, the outage is material at either end of that range, and any single 2026 share figure deserves suspicion. ## What the loss actually means Two rates, side by side. World extraction runs of order **30,000 tonnes a year** — the 169 million standard cubic metres often quoted for 2008 is near 30,000 t at standard [[Density|density]], and the US alone sold 81 million cubic metres in 2025, roughly 14,000 t, per USGS. Crustal manufacture runs **one to three thousand tonnes a year**: balancing the atmospheric budget (3.73 × 10⁹ t over a 2.4 Myr residence time) needs 1,580 t/yr; bulk continental crust composition gives about 1,200; upper crust about 2,500; the figure usually quoted for the whole [[Crust_(geology)|lithosphere]] is 3,000. Those close to a factor of two and no better, and nobody has closed them better. So we extract **ten to twenty-five times faster than the entire [[Crust_(geology)|continental crust]] manufactures it**, out of traps that took hundreds of millions of years to fill, and much of it is vented. The [[Second_law_of_thermodynamics|thermodynamics]] of recovery is unforgiving: at 5.24 ppmv the air is 570 times leaner than the poorest gas anyone processes, so atmospheric recovery is not something a price rise fixes: the [[Limiting_factor|limiting factor]] is [[Entropy|entropy]], not money. [[Helium_storage_and_conservation|Conservation]] and [[Closed_system|closed-loop]] recovery are the only real levers on demand. [[Lunar_resources|Lunar]] [[Regolith|regolith]] on the [[Moon|Moon]] — the [[In_situ_resource_utilization|in-situ resource utilisation]] story usually told about helium-3 — is not a helium-4 supply on any horizon that matters, and [[Nuclear_fusion|fusion]] will not make it at industrial rates either. Every other industrial gas we release is still on this planet. Helium is not. That asymmetry — not price, and not scarcity in the ordinary sense — is what makes helium a categorically different resource problem: there is no [[Carrying_capacity|carrying capacity]] to restore and no [[Thermodynamic_equilibrium|equilibrium]] to return to. It is the one idea the [[Physics|physics]] at the top of this page exists to make physical. <!-- CRAFT-LINK:START g12 --> *Built to the [[WT!P5_js_Microsim_Master_Class|p5.js Master Class]].* <!-- CRAFT-LINK:END --> ## Sources Annotated; one clause each on what the source establishes. Bibliography lines are link-light by house rule (§4). **Atmosphere and escape** - Birner, B., Morgan, E., and Keeling, R. F. (2023). "Short-term variability of atmospheric helium revealed through a cryo-enrichment method." *Atmospheric Measurement Techniques* **16**, 1551–1561. doi:[10.5194/amt-16-1551-2023](https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1551-2023) — source of the working value, verbatim: "Assuming an atmospheric He content of 5.24 ppm (Glückauf, 1944)". Its own reference list gives Glückauf, E., "A simple analysis of the helium content of air", *Trans. Faraday Soc.* **44**, 436–439, 1944 — so the common attribution of 5.24 ppm to the 1946 Glückauf & Paneth paper is wrong. - Birner, B., Severinghaus, J., Paplawsky, B., and Keeling, R. F. (2022). "Increasing atmospheric helium due to fossil fuel exploitation." *Nature Geoscience* **15**, 346–348. doi:[10.1038/s41561-022-00932-3](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00932-3) — atmospheric ⁴He rising at 39 ± 3 billion mol/yr over 1974–2020 from 46 archived air samples; establishes that the atmospheric stock is not static. - Catling, D. C., and Zahnle, K. J. (2009). "The Planetary Air Leak." *Scientific American* **300**(5), 36–43. Stable copy: [sseh.uchicago.edu/doc/Catling2009.pdf](https://sseh.uchicago.edu/doc/Catling2009.pdf) — "about 3 kilograms per second of hydrogen and 50 grams per second of helium", and the load-bearing correction: "Only about one in a million helium atoms is lost from Earth via Jeans' escape", with the polar wind carrying almost the whole terrestrial helium loss. - Trenberth, K. E., and Smith, L. (2005). "The Mass of the Atmosphere: A Constraint on Global Analyses." *Journal of Climate* **18**, 864–875. doi:[10.1175/JCLI-3299.1](https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-3299.1) — the 5.148 × 10¹⁸ kg atmospheric mass that turns 5.24 ppmv into a tonnage and hence into a residence time. - Fields, B. D., Molaro, P., and Sarkar, S. (2025). "Big Bang Nucleosynthesis", *Review of Particle Physics*, Particle Data Group. [pdg.lbl.gov](https://pdg.lbl.gov/) — primordial mass fraction Y_p = 0.245 ± 0.003, the anchor under the "about 24 per cent" cosmic figure; present-day values including stellar production run higher, nearer 0.27, so 24 per cent is a floor with a named spread rather than a constant. **Crustal production and trapping** - Ballentine, C. J., and Burnard, P. G. (2002). "Production, Release and Transport of Noble Gases in the Continental Crust." *Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry* **47**, 481–538. doi:[10.2138/rmg.2002.47.12](https://doi.org/10.2138/rmg.2002.47.12) — the in-situ ⁴He production coefficients. **[PARTLY UNVERIFIED]**: the chapter is paywalled and could not be opened to check the printed digits, so 1.207 × 10⁻¹³ and 2.867 × 10⁻¹⁴ cm³ STP g⁻¹ yr⁻¹ per ppm are given here as they are quoted throughout the downstream literature. They are independently re-derived from half-lives, isotopic abundances and alpha yields in the microsim above (1.2073 × 10⁻¹³ and 2.859 × 10⁻¹⁴), which is what licenses their use in this article. - Rudnick, R. L., and Gao, S. (2003; 2nd ed. 2014). "Composition of the Continental Crust." *Treatise on Geochemistry* **3**, 1–64. doi:[10.1016/B978-0-08-095975-7.00301-6](https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-095975-7.00301-6) — recommended upper continental crust, Table 3: U = 2.7 ± 0.6 ppm, Th = 10.5 ± 1.0 ppm. - Farley, K. A., Wolf, R. A., and Silver, L. T. (1996). "The effects of long alpha-stopping distances on (U–Th)/He ages." *Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta* **60**, 4223–4229. doi:[10.1016/S0016-7037(96)00193-7](https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7037(96)00193-7) — "Alpha stopping ranges in the ²³⁸U, ²³⁵U, and ²³²Th chains vary between ∼10 and ∼30 μm", the reason helium has to escape a grain before it can be a resource. - Danabalan, D., Gluyas, J. G., Macpherson, C. G., Abraham-James, T. H., Bluett, J. J., Barry, P. H., and Ballentine, C. J. (2022). "The principles of helium exploration." *Petroleum Geoscience* **28**, petgeo2021-029. doi:[10.1144/petgeo2021-029](https://doi.org/10.1144/petgeo2021-029) — seals that hold CO₂ and hydrocarbons will hold helium, and an economic threshold of 0.1 per cent, against the NRC's 0.3: the dispute is real and is named in the body rather than averaged. **Resource, policy and market** - National Research Council (2000). *The Impact of Selling the Federal Helium Reserve*. National Academies Press. doi:[10.17226/9860](https://doi.org/10.17226/9860) · [full text](https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/9860/chapter/7) — "Generally, natural gas containing more than 0.3 percent helium is considered economic for helium extraction in the United States." - U.S. Geological Survey, *Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026*, Helium. [pubs.usgs.gov](https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-helium.pdf) — the current end-use split (MRI 15 per cent), 2025 US sales of 81 million m³ valued near $970 million, a base price near $12/m³, and the 2025 build-out that reads as surplus. - U.S. Geological Survey, *Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025*, Helium. [pubs.usgs.gov](https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-helium.pdf) — MRI at 17 per cent, and the disposal record: "On January 25, 2024, the Federal Helium System assets were sold in two lots… Both lots were sold to one company and were transferred on June 27, 2024." - Helium Privatization Act of 1996, Public Law 104-273, 9 October 1996. [govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-104publ273/pdf/PLAW-104publ273.pdf) — the 1 January 2005 start, the 600,000,000 cubic feet floor, the straight-line schedule to 1 January 2015, and the debt-amortisation price formula that is the root of the criticism. - Helium Stewardship Act of 2013, Public Law 113-40, 2 October 2013. [congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/113/plaws/publ40/PLAW-113publ40.pdf) — phased auctions replacing the formula, federal-user and federal-grantee protections, helium-3 separation research, and the September 2021 disposal deadline that was missed by about two and a half years. - Bureau of Land Management (2024). "BLM Helium System sale provides $460 million to U.S. Treasury." [blm.gov](https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-helium-system-sale-provides-460-million-us-treasury) — buyer named as Messer, sale completed June 2024 under the 2013 Act. - American Chemical Society, National Historic Chemical Landmark, "Discovery of Helium in Natural Gas". [acs.org](https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/heliumnaturalgas.html) — "The total amount of helium present in the Dexter gas was an astonishing 1.84%", 7 December 1905. - Exiger (16–19 March 2026). "Iran War Disrupts One-Third of Global Helium Supply." [exiger.com](https://www.exiger.com/perspectives/iran-war-disrupts-one-third-of-global-helium-supply/) — the QatarEnergy halt from 2 March 2026, the 18 March second strike, doubled spot prices, and the "approximately one-third of global helium supply" figure. **Trade analysis, not peer-reviewed.** - AGBI (March 2026). "Qatari LNG shutdown puts 11% of global helium supply at risk." [agbi.com](https://www.agbi.com/industry/2026/03/qatari-lng-shutdown-puts-11-of-global-helium-supply-at-risk/) — the competing 11 per cent figure. **Trade press; irreconcilable with the preceding entry, which is why the body names both.** - The Moscow Times (14 April 2026). "Russia Introduces Helium Export Controls Amid Global Shortage." [themoscowtimes.com](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/14/russia-introduces-helium-export-controls-amid-global-shortage-a92496) — ministerial licensing of helium exports outside the Eurasian Economic Union through end-2027; Gazprom's Amur plant is Russia's largest source. **Physical properties** - NIST Technical Note 1334, *Thermophysical properties of helium-4* — normal boiling point 4.2221 K at 101 325 Pa; critical point 5.1953 K, 227 460 Pa, 69.64 kg/m³. - Encyclopædia Britannica, "Helium". [britannica.com](https://www.britannica.com/science/helium-chemical-element) — "Helium is the only element that cannot be solidified by sufficient cooling at normal atmospheric pressure; it is necessary to apply pressure of 25 atmospheres at a temperature of 1 K… to convert it to its solid form." - Wikipedia, "Helium" — attributes the same fact to zero-point energy ("the zero point energy of the system is too high to allow freezing"), gives 24 per cent of the mass of ordinary matter, rounds the air figure to 5.2 ppm, and supplies the 169 million standard cubic metres (2008) production figure and the ~3000 t/yr lithosphere generation figure used in the closing budget. Tertiary; used only where a primary source is quoted alongside. ## Wikipedia : Wikitube **Strict pair:** [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium) : [Wikitube](https://en.wikitube.io/wiki/Helium) ## Previous hub tags Hubs: `Life_Physics`. Portals: [[PORTAL_Thury_Hydrodynamics_Apex_Spine]], [[PORTAL_Helium]].